History of Oceans and Atmosphere Unit

Summary

There is a preponderance of data indicating that the Earth's oceans and atmosphere are changing. Has this happened in the past? What may have caused the oceans and atmosphere to change? What data supports our understanding of the history of oceanic and atmospheric chemistry, structure, and dynamics? How can understanding past changes inform us about current changes?

Context for Use

Grade Level: High School

Class: Environmental & Earth Science

Instructional Time: 2-week (10-day) unit

Instructional Strategy: Phenomena/Data-Based Investigation

Learning Objectives

Provenance: Katryn Wiese, City College of San FranciscoReuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Students will ...

Analyze data and graphs showing changes over time of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and temperature (HS-ESS2-7)

Identify correlations between geologic, biologic, and impacts with the conditions of the oceans and atmosphere. (HS-ESS2-7)

Model possible feedbacks between Earth's systems that create changes in the atmosphere and oceans. (HS-ESS2-2)

Develop and present their findings regarding the mechanisms of change and the feedbacks. (HS-ESS2-2)